Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Hype Cycle (Wikipedia)
How low the trough, how high the plateau?

The Left Rises Up Against Obama (by Chris Cillizza at The Fix, Washington Post)
President Barack Obama’s reversal on the release of detainee photos has angered the liberal left, a perceived poke in the eye that has left some questioning Obama’s commitment to progressive policies… “Since he’s been inaugurated, Barack Obama has demonstrated a remarkable desire to keep evidence of Bush crimes generally, and Bush’s torture regime specifically, concealed,” said Jane Hamsher [1], the founder of the Fire Dog Lake blog in an email exchange with the Fix. “Some of his supporters won’t care. But others believe he is betraying promises he made on the campaign trail about transparency, and there is a growing sense that he is becoming complicit in the crimes he is attempting desperately to shield from public scrutiny.”

On several liberal blogs, the reaction was similar. Talking Points Memo [2] is leading its site with the headline “Obama Admin Falls Back On Bushism: Abuse Pics’ Release Would Hurt Troops”. On Daily Kos [2], Joan McCarter, a contributing editor to the site, described the move as “an unwelcome and probably futile policy reversal” by Obama; the post had already drawn more than 500 comments less than two hours since it was posted. And Digby [1], another prominent liberal blogger, called White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’ explanation of why the Administration is reversing position as rising to “Fleischeresque levels of fatuousness”.
As Media Matters might say, define “rises up,” Chris. This all sounds pretty mild to me, considering the viciousness with which Clinton and her supporters were attacked, to put Obama in the White House.

[1] Refused to stand up to the Obamaphile online bullies during the primary
[2] WAS an Obamaphile online bully during the primary

Gibbs: ‘Nothing Is Added’ By The Release Of The ‘Sensationalistic’ Photos (Think Progress)
In []Wednesday’s] White House press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was bombarded by questions from reporters about the Obama administration’s decision not to release dozens of photos showing the abuse of detainees by U.S. military personnel. Gibbs argued that releasing the photos would “provide a disincentive for detainee abuse investigation”; people would be afraid to take the photos if they knew they were going to be released. He called the release of the photos “sensationalistic”.
Click through to watch the video.

Feingold Rebukes Obama For Detainee Photo Reversal (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Senator Russ Feingold became one of the first elected officials to criticize Barack Obama for his reversal on releasing of detainee abuse in a statement Wednesday afternoon. Saying he saw no “compelling reason” to object to the release of the images, the Wisconsin Democrat said: “I am generally opposed to keeping the American people in the dark for no other reason than to shield misconduct, avoid embarrassment or other reasons not pertaining to national security. From what I’ve heard so far, I’m not convinced there is a compelling reason these photos shouldn’t be released.”

Obama Broke His Word On Detainee Photos: Chief ACLU Lawyer (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The lawyer pushing for the release of photographs showing the harsh treatment of suspected terrorist detainees said President Barack Obama was backtracking on his word and commitment to transparency by reversing course and objecting to the release of those photos. Jameel Jaffer, a chief litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union National Security Project, described Obama’s reversal as “very disappointing” during an interview with Fox News. “It is inconsistent not only with commitments the Obama administration has made to us and to the courts but inconsistent with the promise of transparency that President Obama has repeated so many times,” he said.

Lawyers scoff at W.H. photo claim (Politico)
Legal experts are scoffing at the White House’s chances of persuading the courts to consider new arguments against the release of photos of abused detainees… In a letter later Thursday to a federal judge who handled the case, the Justice Department said it planned to “pursue further options” including the possibility of seeking review from the Supreme Court. However, a leading scholar on civil litigation rules, Stephen Yeazell of UCLA, said the law is clear that parties to lawsuits, including the government, can’t suddenly raise new arguments not presented to the district court judge who issued the initial ruling…

A better prospect for those determined to deep-six the photos could be an effort that Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are discussing to bar the release of the images by attaching a rider to a pending supplemental appropriations bill… Yeazell said the legislative approach would stand a better chance in the courts. “Then there’s been a intervening change in law. Then, you do have grounds for reopening the case,” he said.

Obama, Neocon In Chief (by Andrew Sullivan)
From extending and deepening the war in Afghanistan, to suppressing evidence of rampant and widespread abuse and torture of prisoners under Bush, to thuggishly threatening the British with intelligence cut-off if they reveal the brutal torture inflicted on Binyam Mohamed, Obama now has new cheer-leaders: Bill Kristol, Michael Goldfarb and Max Boot.

Andrew Sullivan then, and now (by lambert at Corrente)
Andrew Sullivan then: “What does [Obama] offer? First and foremost: his face. Think of it as the most effective potential re-branding of the United States since Reagan. Such a re-branding is not trivial—it’s central to an effective war strategy…” Andrew Sullivan now: “…The MSM cannot see the question of torture and violation of the Geneva Conventions as a matter of right and wrong, of law and lawlessness… In this town, you know what side the MSM is on. Just keep on walking. And let’s have no more curiosity about this bizarre cover-up.” Too bad it takes more than a pretty face to rebrand America. [Emphasis added.]

CNN says men “allegedly” waterboarded were subject to “‘Harsh’ Interrogation Tactics” (County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Feingold says Cheney is wrong: ‘Nothing I have seen’ in the CIA memos proves torture was necessary. (Think Progress)
During his weeks-long media tour defending torture, Vice President Dick Cheney has repeatedly pointed to two CIA memos that he says “showed the success of the effort.” During a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing [Thursday], Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) declared that nothing in those memos suggests that torture was the most effective way to gain information: “Nothing I have seen — including the two documents to which former Vice President Cheney has repeatedly referred — indicates that the torture techniques authorized by the last administration were necessary, or that they were the best way to get information out of detainees. The former vice president is misleading the American people when he says otherwise.”
Click through to watch the video.

FBI Interrogator: Info Widely Cited By Torture Defenders Is False (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
A key moment from [Thursday] Senate torture hearing: …Ali Soufan, the FBI interrogator who was present for the CIA interrogations of Abu Zubaydah during the spring of 2002, just flatly contradicted a claim from the torture memos that torture apologists have widely cited as proof the harsh techniques worked…. Soufan is saying it’s false. And he was there.

Whoops! Lindsey Graham Cites Retracted Report As Proof Torture Worked (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
While directing hostile questioning at a witness during the Senate torture hearing, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham cited an infamous ABC News report from 2007 that said a terror suspect broke under minimal waterboarding, and suggested it undercut the claim that torture didn’t work. But Graham didn’t appear to be aware that the report has since been debunked, and that ABC itself has since corrected the record.

Embarrassing typo at Think Progress re: Torture, genital slicing (by lambert at Corrente)
Great story, but there’s one error, which I highlighted:

It’s not “the Bush administration” that “had threatened to withhold intelligence cooperation with Britain if the information were made public”; it’s the Obama administration.

Health care news worth sharing (President Barack Obama, via email)
I have some encouraging updates about health care reform. The Vice President and I just met with leaders from the House of Representatives and received their commitment to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill by July 31. We also have an unprecedented commitment from health care industry leaders, many of whom opposed health reform in the past… [T]he House and Senate are beginning a critical debate that will determine the health of our nation’s economy and its families. This process should be transparent and inclusive and its product must drive down costs, assure quality and affordable health care for everyone, and guarantee all of us a choice of doctors and plans…

Reforming health care should also involve you…

We’ll continue to keep you posted about this and other important issues.

Thank you,
Barack Obama

P.S. If you’d like to get more in-depth information about health reform and how you can participate, be sure to visit http://www.HealthReform.gov.
But President Obama, reforming health care has already involved me. You asked before you were sworn in what we wanted from you as president, and we told you we want a public health care program. But you continue to include the insurance companies in the deliberations, while leaving out those of us who want the single payer option. Why do you keep asking us what we want and then ignoring what we tell you?

Good News (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
Chris Bowers reports 51 senators are now open to the public health plan option. That means if they don’t back single payer (and let’s face it, Obama is selling woof tickets on the whole thing), they’re backing the next best thing. And for now, with so many people unemployed, that’s very good news.

Get single payer a seat at the table (by gob at Corrente)
–or at least, get your advocacy into the Senate Finance Committee’s permanent record. In my email today I find this Single Payer Action Page:, which enables you to send single payer advocacy to your Congresscritters and the President, and ” ALSO turns your comments into an actual pdf file and sends it as an attachment DIRECT to the Senate Finance Committee, meeting all their *restrictive requirements to make it part of the permanent record.”

Joel Pett

Cantor Mimics Luntz’s Health Care Message: There’s A ‘Crisis’ But ‘Washington’ Shouldn’t Solve It (Think Progress)
Last week, GOP wordsmith Frank Luntz authored a new messaging memo defining the Republican rhetoric on health care reform, in which he argued that his poll-tested words “should be used by everyone” in order to hijack the health care debate. ThinkProgress noted that Luntz’s suggested talking points were quickly embraced by congressional Republicans. On Bill Bennett’s radio show [Thursday], Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) followed Luntz’s framing exactly. Here’s how Cantor’s rhetoric today lines up with Luntz’s suggestions: “…Listen Bill, there’s a health crisis. You know when you have, don’t have coverage, that’s a crisis for you and your family. We need to address it… But the answer is not to lay it on Washington, to pump up what Washington’s role in this.”
Click through to listen to the audio.

Limbaugh says Obama health care plan is “not going to be about providing health coverage” it’s about “being able to raise taxes at every turn in your life” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Black helicopter sighting: Limbaugh warns that “national healthcare … is the entrée to controlling every aspect of your life” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Americans’ 401(k) savings dropped by 28 percent in 2008 (McClatchy)
Among 2.7 million employees eligible for 401(k)investment plans, the median rate of return last year was minus 28.3 percent.
Ah, then it must be time for Social Security “reform.”

The Truth Behind the Social Security and Medicare Alarm Bells (by Robert Reich)
Don’t be confused by these alarms from the Social Security and Medicare trustees. Social Security is a tiny problem. Medicare is a terrible one, but the problem is not really Medicare; it’s quickly rising health-care costs. Look more closely and the real problem isn’t even health-care costs; it’s a system that pushes up costs by rewarding inefficiency, causing unbelievable waste, pushing over-medication, providing inadequate prevention, over-using emergency rooms because many uninsured people can’t afford regular doctor checkups, and spending billions on advertising and marketing seeking to enroll healthy people and avoid sick ones.

Fed Watch: Not So Green Wednesday (by Mark Thoma at Economist’s View)
[T]he pace of decline accelerating since the first quarter, again suggesting that the green shoots story has been overplayed. Some stability, yes. A slower rate of decline overall, likely. But enough to start looking for the next economic boom? No.

Where does this leave us? The Federal Reserve is caught; policymakers are warily watching the economy, worried that their liquidity injections will catch fire. On the other hand, they suspect that the economy will demand greater stimulus… [T]hey want to remain flexible, and hence are unwilling to commit to numerical targets, either money growth or long rates. Hard to blame them; for the last decade, excessive easing has always caused something seemingly good that was followed by something very bad… I remain wary that there is any room for an easy bounceback; I can’t shake off memories of 2001-2003, and I don’t see where we get another asset bubble in the US to crank up the wealth engine.

Commentary: Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men? (by Michael Smerconish, Philadelphia Inquirer)
Forget Bernie Madoff. The Wall Street veteran who might be the real scapegoat for our country’s financial meltdown hasn’t closed a deal in more than two decades. Many presume he spent at least some of that time in jail. But his influence has stood the test of time. The prospect of duplicating his lifestyle and aura may have drawn many young brokers to Wall Street – for better or worse. And now he’s coming back. Gordon Gekko…

Gekko has become a symbol of New York‘s financial sector – one so enduring that Douglas himself told the New York Times in 2007 that he could do without “one more drunken Wall Street broker” approaching him and saying, “You’re the man!”… Men everywhere can still quote Gekko’s most memorable lines: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right; greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.” “If you’re not inside, you’re outside.” “What else you got besides connections at the airport?”

Oxymoron (by Owen Paine at Stop Me Before I Vote Again)
They call it CSR for short — corporate social responsibility — and it’s a topic to ponder, if you happen to work for one of corporate America’s castrated brethren, i.e. a nonprofit outfit like a social-change foundation, or, at the other pole, a vulgar… B-school. “Much of what has been written on this question has been both confused and confusing. Advocates, as well as academics, have entangled what ought to be four distinct questions about corporate social responsibility: may they, can they, should they, and do they.”… “Do firms behave this way?” In a word — no. As Captain Kirk said in episode 27, ‘Return of the Gorn’ — “Bones, the smartest way to gamble is to load the dice.” [Emphasis added.]

U.S. Moves to Regulate Derivatives Trade (Wall Street Journal)
Federal regulators outlined plans to regulate the giant market for derivatives, a move aimed at avoiding a repeat of the turmoil created last year by certain financial institutions whose risk-taking in exotic financial instruments went largely unchecked. Under a proposed raft of reforms, regulators could be given authority to force many standard over-the-counter derivatives to be traded on regulated exchanges and electronic-trading platforms. That would make it easier to see prices and make markets more transparent. Firms with large derivative exposures or that trade more-complex derivatives would be subject to new reporting requirements.

Obama administration to expand housing plan (AP)
The Obama administration is expected to expand its mortgage aid program on Thursday, announcing new measures that would help homeowners avoid a blemished credit record even if they don’t qualify for other assistance. The new initiatives are expected to include ways to allow borrowers to avoid foreclosure by selling their properties or giving them back to lenders, according to people briefed on the plan who declined to be identified because it has yet to be announced.

One way would be to encourage a “short sale,” in which the home is sold for less than the amount owed on the mortgage but the lender considers the debt paid off. Another option is a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure — in which the borrower gives the property to the lender to satisfy a delinquent loan and to avoid foreclosure proceedings.

Obama Breaks With Gates, Cancels Nuke Program (The Plank, The New Republic)
Obama’s new budget plan includes a little-noted sea change in U.S. nuclear policy, and a step towards his vision of a denuclearized world. It provides no funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, created to design a new generation of long-lasting nuclear weapons that don’t need to be tested… “My colleagues just stared at that line,” says Joe Cirincione, a longtime nonproliferation expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund. “They had never seen anything like that.” Killing the program, he said, was “the first programmatic impact of the new [zero nukes] policy. People have said they want to see more than words, this is the very first action.”

White House Czar Calls for End to ‘War on Drugs’‎ (Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration’s new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting “a war on drugs,” a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use. In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation’s drug issues. “Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see a war as a war on them,” he said. “We’re not at war with people in this country.”

Marijuana—The New Money Tree? (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)
Legalizing marijuana would be an interesting choice. It is already used recreationally by many millions of Americans. If it were to become legal, it could be heavily taxed. Funds would no longer need to be spent chasing those who grow and sell it and arresting those who have it in their possession. The courts would be freed from dealing with growers, sellers, and users. Legitimate tax paying businesses could distribute it.

Senate Rejects Limit on Credit-Card Interest Rates (The Caucus, New York Times)
Despite complaints that banks and credit card companies are gouging customers by charging outrageous interest rates, the Senate on Wednesday easily turned back an effort to cap interest rates at 15 percent. The effort by Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, drew only 33 votes and needed 60, with a bipartisan group of 60 senators opposing it as the Senate pushed its credit card overhaul toward the finish line.

Some Democrats and consumer groups have said that an interest cap is needed to put real teeth into an otherwise solid bill. Other backers of the measure calculated that an interest rate ceiling would doom the popular legislation. The banking industry, which had some heavy-weight representatives monitoring the vote off of the Senate floor, warned that an interest rate limit could cause a sour reaction in the financial markets. But Mr. Sanders said the card companies and banks were engaged in conduct that could get others hauled into court. He said one-third of all credit card holders are paying interest above 20 percent and as high as 41 percent.

Whose Senate Is This? (Editorial, New York Times)
The gun lobby and its all-too-willing political accomplices have struck again. The Senate’s version of urgently needed legislation to protect credit card users has been saddled with a dangerous and utterly nongermane amendment allowing visitors to openly carry loaded firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges. A disappointing 27 Senate Democrats, whose party once led the fight for gun control, eagerly signed on with 39 Republicans — fawning together before the lobby’s lethal diktat. None of that 66 dared to ask: What on earth does laissez-faire gun toting have to do with credit card fairness? And why should the national parks, which are supposed to be peaceful preserves, be filled with loaded AK-47s and other war weapons?

The House has passed a gun-free credit card measure, and members must muster the courage to strip this amendment from the Senate’s version.

Congress aims to jump-start cash for clunkers program (McClatchy)
Consumers could get up to $4,500 each to help replace old gas-guzzling cars — as long as they turn in their old ones — under a plan that’s gained strong support from the White House and leaders of Congress.

Reid Still Has No Opponent (Political Wire)
Politico notes it’s “increasingly looking like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is going to get a pass for reelection in 2010.”… Meanwhile, CQ Politics notes that President Obama will headline his first fundraiser for an individual candidate on May 26 and it’s for Reid.

Republican lawmakers back carbon tax (yes, that’s right) (McClatchy)
Reps. Bob Inglis of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona on Wednesday became the first Republican lawmakers to introduce legislation imposing a carbon tax on producers and distributors of fossil fuels.

Don’t you usually go to CostCo to load up… (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
…on babies? Rep. Darrell Issa (Douche – Wingnuttia.), thinks that getting an extra week of vacation will lead to an explosion of federal workers making babies, or even worse - buying adopting them. Because, you know, an extra week at the time share in Branson MO is worth the expense of raising another child. “[Workers] could have one adoption or one foster child per year, resulting in every year you get a new foster child, every year the husband and wife if they are both federal workers would take four weeks off with pay, because they have simply taken in a new foster child.”

Top Conservative Blogger Calls For Boycott Of NRSC Over Crist (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
Uh oh — the conservative backlash against the national GOP for its endorsement of moderate, stimulus-supporting Governor Charlie Crist in the GOP primary continues apace. Top right wing blogger Erick Erickson of RedState.com is now calling for conservatives to stop giving money to the NRSC over the endorsement of Crist, who is running against conservative former House Speaker Mark Rubio.

FBI Investigating Coleman In Minnesota (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The FBI is investigating allegations that former Senator Norm Coleman had clothing and other items purchased on his behalf by a longtime friend and businessman Nasser Kazeminy, according to a source in Minnesota who was interviewed recently by federal agents… The FBI has also been conducting interviews in Texas, according to media reports, in regards to different allegations that Kazeminy tried to steer $75,000 to Coleman through his wife’s employer. Up to this point, there have not been reports of any FBI work taking place in Coleman’s home state. The possibility exists that the sole target of the FBI’s work is Kazeminy and not Coleman.

Bloomberg Approval Up (Political Wire)
A new Marist Poll finds New York City Michael Bloomberg’s job approval at 59% positive — up seven points since February — while 39% describe his performance as either fair or poor. There is little difference in opinion among Democrats and Republicans.

Dropping Pretext Of A ‘Grassroots Movement,’ GOP Governors Launch ‘Tea Party 2.0’ (Think Progress)
[Wednesday], Politico reports that Republican Govs. Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina are leading the latest development of the anti-tax, anti-Obama tea party protest movement. Dubbed the “Tea Party 2.0,” the Republican Governors Association will host a telephone conference call on Thursday with thousands of right-wing activists to discuss how “our states’ rights are being trampled upon.”

RNC set to approve resolution rebranding the Democratic Party as ‘Democrat Socialist Party.’ (Think Progress)
Roger Simon reports [Wednesday] that the Republican National Committee will “approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the ‘Democrat Socialist Party‘” when they meet next week for a “special session.” When asked if the resolution would force embattled RNC chairman Michael Steele to use the label personally, an RNC member replied, “Who cares?” Steele wrote a memo last month in opposition to the resolution that he believed the label would “accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans.”
Or the opportunity to properly characterize them.

Bill Clinton on Cheney’s re-emergence: ‘It’s over.’ (Think Progress)
In March, Vice President Cheney famously claimed that the country is less safe under President Obama and has since become the right’s fiercest critic of the Obama administration. Today, while campaigning for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, President Clinton “laughed off” Cheney’s attacks: “‘I wish him well,’ Clinton told CNN while greeting voters after a campaign stop with Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. ‘It’s over,’ he added, apparently a reference to the Bush administration. ‘But I do hope he gets some more target practice before he goes out again,’ Clinton said with a grin before moving along the ropeline.”
Click through to watch the video.

Fox Nation asks: “Is it Empathy? Or Is Obama Shredding the Constitution?” (County Fair, Media Matters for America)

WashPost , please define “requirement” (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Here’s the Post headline [Wednesday]: “Obama Makes Empathy a Requirement for Court” Pretty much lifted right from GOP talking points, right? Conservatives have latched onto the idea that “empathy” is the top priority for Obama’s upcoming SCOTUS justice pick, even though that evidence is quite thin. And conservatives think that Obama’s supposed interest in “empathy” is a really big deal. So, voilà, so does the Post. But “requirement”? That’s a huge stretch, and one the daily never justifies.

Sotomayor’s Medical History Sparks Wider Debate (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
With President Obama’s Supreme Court choice expected within weeks, the vetting process for prospective candidates has grown more intense. Judicial rulings, legal papers, public statements and financial records all are being pored over with eagle eyes. So too is a far more sensitive matter: medical records… A frontrunner for the post, Judge Sonia Sotomayor of U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, is a Type One diabetic. It is one of the more compelling aspects to an already compelling biography. And while hardly a debilitating disease — indeed, recent medical advancements have made it quite manageable to live with — there remain enough late-in-life health implications to have sparked debate in legal, political and medical circles.
It might make her a better justice, perhaps more EMPATHETIC to those who suffer, those who worry about their medical privacy, and those who could benefit from scientific advances that the right wing opposes.

Krauthammer: I will say things in my column even if I don’t believe what I’m saying. (Think Progress)
On May 1, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer conceded in a column that waterboarding is torture. Krauthammer argued that torture is justifiable “under two circumstances” and that in those cases “you do what you have to do. And that includes waterboarding.” But in an interview on Dennis Miller’s radio show ][Wednesday, Krauthammer said that he didn’t mean it when he wrote that waterboarding is torture: “…I personally don’t think it is but I was willing to concede it in the column without argument exactly as you say to get away from the semantic argument.’
Click through to listen to the audio.

News Organizations Asked Not To Name "Other Woman" During Elizabeth Edwards Interviews (TVNewser, Media Bistro)
What's in a name? A lot if you are Elizabeth Edwards, especially if that name is Rielle Hunter. Edwards began making the rounds last week publicizing her new book. But in three TV interviews - with Oprah Winfrey, Matt Lauer and Larry King - Hunter, "the other woman" in the John Edwards affair, was not mentioned. David Bauder … writes that his own organization, The Associated Press, would not agree to the demand and was twice turned down for interviews with Edwards. "It's simple," said Michael Oreskes, vice president and senior managing editor of the AP. "We don't let other people edit our wire."

Camille Paglia plays dumb about Fox News (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Salon's conservative columnist turns her ire on talk radio this month… According to Paglia, right-wing talk radio has jumped the hate tracks. Notice however, what goes unmentioned in her critique? It's the fact that Fox News has virtually duplicated the "seething" of talk radio; that Fox News has turned itself into a "feverish crisis" outpost under Obama.

Today’s Religion v. Science Round-up! (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
The Bible says everything that has breath has a right to praise the Lord. But there are some times when the Scripture commands woman to shut up! – DR. PHIL KIDD

Falsies (by Anglachel)
[W]hy are liberals so comfortable with [Keith] Olbermann’s and others’ use of liberal politics to engage in crude misogyny? With [Carrie] Prejean, as with Gov. Palin and in an oblique way with Hillary, the mysogyny is twisted together with a culture critique that tries to have its cheesecake and spit on it, too. The high-minded disdain evinced by (mostly but not always) men like Olbermann allows both the critic and the audience to manhandle stereotypes of “low” women, simultaneously creating what is low and implanting those reviled qualities into a disposable other, inviting each other to ogle, manipulate, possess and indulge in those despicable (yet deeply desired) aspects under the guise of rejecting them. We can’t just talk about Prejean’s opinions – we also have to stare at her (false, deceitful, whorish) breasts which serve as proof of her shallow character, her vanity, and her desire to be fucked over. She’s just asking for it!

We lose sight of the real political challenge, the deep division within the Democratic coalition about our commitment as a party to equal rights, and we are assaulted by yet another misogynistic T&A drool session masquerading as political commentary. In the end, Somerby is less criticizing Olbermann than he is those who watch him with admiration, thinking that this is somehow progressive. To think you can engage in this kind of misogyny and be progressive is simply false.

Not Another Miss California Post (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)

Why don’t they auction off some Hillary nutcrackers and Citizens United Not Timid shirts? (by vastleft at Corrente)
Democratic Underground, a veritable factory for creating and propagating demeaning lies about the former First Lady and presidential candidate, and current Secretary of State, is running this promotion: “One lucky DUer will win TWO SIGNED BOOKS by Hillary Rodham Clinton: A SIGNED paperback copy of ‘Living History’ and a SIGNED hardback copy of ‘It Takes A Village’!”

Expect Gender Equality In…100 Years (Capital Eye)
Women, take note: It could be another century before you have completely equal influence over who ends up in Congress. In the 1990 election cycle, 24 percent of the total $151 million in itemized contributions (more than $200) to congressional candidates came from women. In the 2008 election cycle, despite the intense interest of and participation by women, still only 28 percent of the $641 million total came from women. If that rate of growth continues, women wouldn’t achieve parity in campaign contributions until the 2110 midterms to elect the 162nd Congress, CRP has found. Seems like an awfully long time to wait.

Of course, to put that in perspective, 100 years ago there wasn’t a single woman in Congress, nor did women have the right to vote.

Media Matters for America headlines

ABC report on interrogation hearing left out testimony on non-harsh methods’ success

Politico dubiously suggests Republicans’ opposition to Hayes is about Hayes

Fox News now giving publicity to Republican Governors’ “Tea Party 2.0″

In 2004 WSJ op-ed, Yoo made claims at odds with his Justice Department memos

Fox again hosts McCaughey to push health care reform falsehoods

NewsBusters’ Huston falsely claims Obama responsible for funding “Chinese hookers” study

WSJ misleads on greenhouse gas memo

Hannity twists Wash. Post report to claim “the stimulus is failing”

Hannity still playing “dumb” about Nugent’s use of the “B” word on his show

MSNBC ignores Galen Institute’s reported health care industry ties

North Korea to Put U.S. Journalists on Trial in June
North Korea said it would put two U.S. journalists it arrested in March on trial on June 4, ratcheting up tension with Washington. Analysts said the reclusive North sees the two reporters as bargaining chips to try to win concessions.

U.S. court bars DirecTV from airing “false” ads
A federal court has barred top U.S. satellite television provider DirecTV Group from releasing ads that could give customers the impression that bankrupt Charter Communications Inc is liquidating or might stop offering cable TV service.
Good. Now, let’s stop politicians from airing lying, or even misleading, ads.

House Panel OKs Bill to Pay Artists for Radio Play
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would require traditional radio stations to pay artists for their songs, and extended a deadline for Internet radio stations to come up with a deal on royalty rates.

Geffen Would Turn NYT Into a Nonprofit
If David Geffen were successful in landing The New York Times, said one confidante, he’d convert it into a nonprofit institution. He would regard the newspaper, perhaps the world’s most influential journalistic enterprise, as a national treasure meriting preservation into perpetuity.
I guess I’m not so reverential about the Times, having seen it put the pond scum of Arkansas on its front pages to lie about President Clinton, help keep Al Gore out of the White House by allowing Kit Seelye to make up stories about him, and help the Bush administration lie us into an unnecessary war.

Washington State Approves Tax Cuts for Newspapers
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire has approved a tax break for the state’s troubled newspaper industry. The new law gives newspaper printers and publishers a 40 percent cut in the state’s main business tax. The discounted rate mirrors breaks given in years past to the Boeing Co. and the timber industry.

Obnoxious Newspaper Bailout Begins (Silicon Alley Insider)
[Reasons why bailouts are a terrible idea:]
• It’s bad to reward outdated businesses based on outdated tech…
• Traditionally bloated monopolies, newspapers don’t know how to innovate…
• A government subsidized “free press” isn’t a “free press” at all.

Why People Won’t Pay for Online News the Way They Pay for HBO (by Nat Ives, Advertising Age)
Here’s why cable and satellite subscriptions aren’t a good model for newspapers. In the first place, cable and TV offered something better than broadcast TV — much better. Their packages included perfect reception; many more channels, some with no commercials, mostly unavailable any other way; and types of programming you couldn’t get otherwise, i.e., shows with “adult” language and situations. In the second place, cable and satellite were optional products people could buy to enhance their programming.

Newspapers will be banding together, on the other hand, to take back certain content people already view on the web free. And for what? International news, sports coverage, city-council meetings already attended by bloggers? That’s not necessarily comparable to “The Sopranos,” live out-of-town sports, recently released movies and, well, nudity. Sorry to say.
I guess we’re about to find out.

WP reader: “If I need to pay $5 for the sports section I would”
“Anything else I would not pay for and feel that I could find a reasonable facsimile of elsewhere for free,” the Washington Post reader types to Gene Weingarten. The WPer says: “You know, there’s an interesting philosophical question here; why do people feel they SHOULD get it for free? … This is the sad truth: We put [free content] on the Web because we didn’t know what else to do. We knew everyone else would do the same thing. We figured that eventually we’d figure out how to turn a profit from the Web and also that the paper product would remain more profitable than it has. I think it is fair to say we blew it.”

McClatchy City Newspapers Charge For TV Section
Three McClatchy-owned papers have begun charging subscribers extra this month to receive the stand-alone TV sections that have been staples of Sunday papers. In Miami, Sacramento and Tacoma, Wash., subscribers now have to “opt-in” to get the supplement and then pay a 25-cent charge.

Newspapers Need to Be More Print-Like Online, Says BBCer
The BBC director of future media and technology, Erik Huggers, has said that newspapers need to tailor their online content to make it more like existing print media formats if they are to profit in the digital marketplace.

Chicago Community Covers City Hall (by Barbara Iverson at Poynter Online)
When the ailing news industry is discussed, an often-asked question is: who will cover local politics if newspapers go out of business? In Chicago, where both the major news organizations have filed for bankruptcy, WindyCitizen.com (WC), a local news aggregator and community site, is experimenting with covering a Chicago City Council meeting this week.

The meeting of the Chicago City Council meeting will be streamed live from Council Chambers on the Web site of City Clerk Miguel Del Valle. With Chicago’s history of opaqueness toward news media, that in itself might be newsworthy, but WC is making it an interactive event. The discussion thread is unlikely to provide full coverage of the City Council meeting, even if Chicago’s best political reporters join the discussion, but as Clay Shirky recently pointed out, “Now is the time for experiments, lots and lots of experiments, each of which will seem as minor at launch as craigslist did, as Wikipedia did, as octavo volumes did.”

Frequent contributor, Tamale Chica, a.k.a Mary Olvera, and WC publisher, Brad Flora have set up an interactive event on the WC site by hosting an open thread “where readers can chat about it as it happens with other folks who follow the hijinks of their elected officials.”

The Case For Narrowcasting (by Chris Ahearn, president of Media at Thomson Reuters, writing at Paid Content)
Too often, media-industry players take the idea that “more is better” when talking about the size of their audience. Why? Because conventional wisdom is that bigger is better. The bigger your audience, the broader your reach, the more you can charge for space, time, frequency or general access.  Conventional wisdom makes us feel good; but it is just that, conventional. Our industry is drastically changing. If we are going to have a happy ending, we need to narrow the sweet spots to focus on unique needs. The spots that offer our customers valuable and unique services—and that they will pay for. The spots where advertisers can speak to quality audience. I think of these sweet spots as narrowcasting.

The questions to ask are: Where do we add real, differentiated value? Are we growing an audience that matters, or is it just numbers? Are we getting to know them better and giving them a unique service? These questions are the same whether it’s a B2C or B2B world. In a fragmenting media world, make fragmentation your friend. Media owners have to take the same approach to advertising. Go deep, not broad.

Ex-LATer: I don’t see newspaper companies as villains
“Papers are losing money, which means measures have to be taken,” says former Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Connelly. “You’re seeing cutbacks in all phases. … In Los Angeles, the community isn’t getting the paper it got even five years ago. The paper doesn’t have the resources. You see it in the breadth and depth of the news reporting. Their commitment to the news has been a retreat because of economic constraints. But it doesn’t make the company a villain. What can it do? We’re seeing a societal change.”

APME Survey: Newspapers Fear Effects of Cutbacks
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. newspaper executives responding to a recent survey said their ability to inform readers has diminished with their steadily shrinking staffs. The survey illuminated the doubts and concerns hovering over newspapers as the industry reels.

Someone Bids $13,000 for Huffington Post Internship
Why Settle for Free Content When Journalists Will Pay You?
The money goes to charity, but it’s worth mentioning.

New WSJ Conduct Rules Target Twitter, Facebook
Staffers at The Wall Street Journal have been given a newly compiled list of rules for “professional conduct,” which included a lengthy guide for use of online outlets, noting cautions for activities on social networking sites.

TV Upfronts Will Be ‘Opposite of Excessive’
Presentations of the new fall schedules once droned on for three hours but this year will be kept to a deflationary 90 minutes. The parties will be less grand as well. CBS is exiting the tony Tavern on the Green for Terminal Five. ABC’s post-presentation party is at a Cheney-like undisclosed location.

‘Kung Fu Panda’ to Become a Series on Nickelodeon
The cable channel, which has found success with the Dreamworks film-inspired “The Penguins of Madagascar,” will begin showing the new series early next year.

Nielsen Failure Foretold by Disco-Era Tactics (by Josef Adalian, TV Week)
The Great Nielsen Meltdown of 2009 should come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever seen one of the company’s paper diaries. In an age in which more than 30 percent of TV homes have DVRs, Nielsen apparently hasn’t figured out how to use its diaries to tally time-shifted viewing.

Review: Flaws in Web’s much-touted WolframAlpha (by Brian Bergstein, AP Technology Editor)
When a free Web service called WolframAlpha launches in the coming days, the general public will get to try a “computational knowledge engine” that has had technology insiders buzzing because of its oracle-like ability to spit out answers and make calculations. Which has a bigger gross domestic product, Spain or Canada? What was New York City’s population in 1900? When did the sun rise in Los Angeles on Nov. 15, 1973? How far is the moon right now? If I eat an apple and an orange, how much protein would I get?

WolframAlpha will tell you — without making you comb through links as a search engine would. It also will graphically illustrate answers when merited… In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I’m troubled by the potential for WolframAlpha. I fear the implications of an information butler that is considered so smart and so widely applicable that people turn to it without question, by default, whenever they want to know something.
We should never depend on ANY source “without question,” and hopefully WolframAlpha will provide the sources of its data, so they can be checked. But Bergstein is also worried that this might make people lazy. I think it might actually make people vastly more productive.

Music Research: Legal Hits Just As Dominant On P2P (Paid Content)
Chris Anderson may think the internet unleashes a sales boom for obscure and old content but, in the P2P file-sharing world, music download patterns look uncannily like those back in the world of mainstream hits, according to new research. The Long Tail Of P2P paper, which observed illegal downloading habits over 12 months, says: “Consumers are still driven to seek the same music in legal and illegal markets. The most swapped files were also the most downloaded on legal music sites, indicating that what’s popular is popular.”…

The important subtext of the conclusion may suggest the record business would be better off monetising P2P, through licensing ISPs who track customers’ activities, than continuing to fight against downloaders.

Voyij: Best Deals for Travelers With an Open Calendar (Mashable)
Voyij is a new travel site that launches today with a focus on aggregating tens of thousands of current deals and sales on hotels, flights, and vacation packages, for travelers that want to go where the best travel deal takes them (ie. plans not set in stone)… [T]he site actually delivers on its promise to provide great deals. Just do quick search and you’ll see that you can travel on the cheap to pretty much anywhere in North America or the Caribbean if your dates are flexible.

Blerp Gives Web Annotations Another Try (Mashable)
The idea of group (or social, if you will) website annotations has been around for some time. Adding another layer of (useful, hopefully) information to a web destination seems interesting, but none of the services that tried had really managed to create a big enough user base for them to really become useful. Enter Blerp, which tries to bridge the user base gap by connecting users with their existing social networking profiles and friends… The idea behind Blerp, according to its creators, is to “liberate the web” and try to create a giant social forum, where people would discuss and enrich web destinations as they browse. The problem with this approach, however, is that people don’t particularly like additional layers over web sites, for various reasons, speed and inevitable errors being the two most common ones.

HOW TO: Publish Your Blog on the Amazon Kindle (Mashable)
There are some interesting things you can do with a Kindle. One of them is the ability to subscribe to and read your favorite blogs on the go. In fact, this is how my mother reads my blog posts – via Mashable on the Kindle. It’s an easy and on-the-go way to read your favorite blogs, but it was only available to a few high-profile web publications – at least, until [Thursday], when Amazon launched its Kindle Publishing for Blogs program.
Click through for details.

Hate goes viral on social network sites: group
Militants and hate groups increasingly use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube as propaganda tools to recruit new members, according to a report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Under Pressure, Craigslist to Remove ‘Erotic’ Ads
Craigslist, the Web’s largest classified advertising site, will close its erotic services category, which critics have said is a forum that fosters prostitution and other illegal activities. To replace it, the company has created a category called adult services, in which postings will be reviewed by employees.

Paid Search Traffic Down Sharply (Paid Content)
Big brands just may have figured out that one way to cut back is to stop buying as many search ads considering their sites are already likely to show up high in search results. Hitwise reports that the share of search traffic to websites generated from paid listings has dropped to about 7.25 percent over the last four weeks, down from 9.8 percent during the same period a year ago. The market research firm notes that paid clicks from searches for brand name terms—such as Home Depot and Orbitz— saw especially sharp drops.

Hitwise attributes the fall to “cutbacks in marketing spend due to the recession.” But Marketing Pilgrim’s Andy Beal adds that it’s also possible that “Orbitz et al (are) figuring out that they really don’t need to spend so much on paid advertising–considering they’re #1 in the organic results.” Either way can’t be good trends for the search engines.

Social Network Ad Spending to Fall, But It’s Not All About the Money (Mashable)
According to eMarketer’s latest research, US social network ad spending will fall 3% in 2009. If it happens, it’ll be a big change from previous couple of years; in 2007., social network ad spending grew 129% in 2007, and in 2008, it grew 33%…

Further proof that social networks aren’t doing that bad is the fact that companies are more and more willing to invest into them in ways other than merely buying ads. According to a recent Forrester Research survey, 53% of marketers are planning to increase their investment in social media in 2009. This means branding, PR, customer relationship management; all those things social networks can be great for, if you handle them carefully. All in all, the numbers may be down, but if you read between the lines, social networks and social media are still growing fast and will probably continue to do so for some time.

@LOGIN: How Online Gaming Companies Are Trying To Make Money From Kids (Paid Content)
One big challenge for online game companies is how to make money from children who play lots of games online but don’t have any cash. At the LOGIN Conference in Seattle, panelists talked about some of the strategies that online gaming companies are adopting. Warning: Easily outraged parents should not read on.

—Mobile payments: While kids might not have credit cards, they are likely to have cell phones, often paid for by their parents. So, one option is to introduce a payment method that lets gamers pay for virtual goods simply by entering cell-phone numbers…
—Pre-paid cards: Rob Goldberg of GMG Entertainment talked about offering pre-paid cards, which parents can buy for their children, at retail outlets…
—Surveys: It might not be glamorous, but those “Fill out this survey, get a free iPod” offers do work. Instead of iPods, gaming companies can offer virtual goods. Adam Caplan of Super Rewards said his company offers all sorts of sign-ups—from a subscription to The New York Times to acne cream. When people sign up, the gaming company gets a cut.

Are you ‘app-noxious’?
Thanks to a wave of popular new mobile apps, our phones are now capable of passing gas, passing judgment, and annoying our friends, family and colleagues in a much more efficient, high-tech manner.

Wi-Fi on the go with MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot
Hunting down a wireless Internet connection is priority No. 1 for many travelers. But while Wi-Fi hot spots are common at airports, hotels, coffeehouses and conference centers, it’d be way more convenient if a hot spot could somehow follow you around. And also be available to the family members, friends or colleagues hanging out with you. That’s precisely the allure behind the MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot.

Real Accuses Hollywood of Antitrust Violations
RealNetworks has accused a bloc of Hollywood studios of antitrust violations, arguing that the CSS copy-protection technology that they jointly license blocks a new market for backing up DVDs.